Screening: aCinema Screening Series—Saturday 5 PM *IN PERSON*
In person at Woodland Pattern
Fri. May 15, Sat. May 16, & Sun. May 17 ($Give What You Can)
Screenings will take place at 5 pm and 7 pm CDT each day
Join us for aCinema’s Annual Screening Series, featuring a weekend of six programs curated by Takahiro Suzuki and Janelle VanderKelen! We are thrilled to welcome them back to the gallery for this special, condensed presentation, which comprises aCinema’s Season 10.
The first two screenings will feature works selected from the aDifferent Program open call held this winter, which received over 300 submissions from around the globe. The weekend will then progress to four curated screenings featuring works by Curtis Chin, Clara Jost, Chester Toye, and many more!
Saturday 5 PM | PROGRAM THREE: an open hand gathers the wind
Curtis Chin | Warren King: King of Cardboard
SYNOPSIS
Artist Warren King transforms cardboard into sculptural reflections of his Chinese American family's immigration and his path from engineer to artist. Preparing for a Wisconsin homecoming show, King explores belonging through art.
BIOGRAPHY
Curtis Chin is the author of the award-winning memoir, "Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant." A co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City, Curtis Chin served as the nonprofit's first Executive Director. He went on to write comedy for network and cable television before transitioning to social justice documentaries. Chin has screened his films at over 600 venues in twenty countries. He has written for CNN, Bon Appétit, the Detroit Free Press, and the Emancipator/Boston Globe.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, Chin has received awards from ABC/Disney Television, New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and more. His essay in Bon Appétit was just selected for Best Food Writing in America 2023, and his short doc, "Dear Corky," premiered on American Masters (PBS). He is currently working on a new Chinese Restaurant project.
Josh Weissbach | echoes of a zephyr
SYNOPSIS
A glimpse and a breath of antiquity.
BIOGRAPHY
Josh Weissbach is an experimental filmmaker. His films have been shown worldwide in such venues as Ann Arbor Film Festival, Light Field, Courtisane Festival, European Media Art Festival, 25 FPS Festival, First Look at Museum of the Moving Image, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Festival dei Popoli, and Festival des Cinémas Différents et Expérimentaux de Paris. He has won jury prizes at Ithaca Experimental, Montreal Underground, Videoex, ICDOCS, Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, and Berlin Revolution Film Festival. He is the recipient of a 2021 Artistic Excellence Award from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, a 2020 Moving Image Fund Early Development Grant from the LEF Foundation, a 2018 LightPress Grant from the Interbay Cinema Society, a 2015 LEF Fellowship from the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, a 2013 Mary L. Nohl Fellowship for Emerging Artists from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, and a 2008 Cary Grant Film Award from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA. A selection of Josh’s films is in distribution at Light Cone in Paris, France.
Süheyla Noyan | Usulca Iç Çeker [sighing softly]
SYNOPSIS
An albino bird and a human share a landscape of quiet solitude, inhabiting moments where language falters, and silence lingers.
BIOGRAPHY
Süheyla Noyan is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker with a background in law. Working with hybrid forms, she traces overlooked narratives that may not seek to be seen but deserve attention. Her films have received international awards and have been screened at venues including MoMA and Anthology Film Archives. She holds an MFA in Cinema from Binghamton University and is currently teaching at Alfred State College (SUNY).
Hogan Seidel | Objectionable Fruit
SYNOPSIS
Objectionable Fruit is an experimental documentary examining the Ginkgo tree—a living fossil celebrated for its resilience and unique capacity to change sexes, defying human-imposed binaries. Using the Ginkgo as a metaphor for fluidity and endurance, the film weaves together themes of gender identity, ecological interconnectedness, and the nuanced complexities of queer existence.
BIOGRAPHY
Hogan Seidel is a Boston-based artist working in the traditions of experimental film and photography. Their current artistic research, framed through poetic, political, and personal lenses, delves into contemporary queer discourse, queer history, and queer ecology. Hogan is currently an assistant teaching professor of photography at Simmons University.
Rosana Lee | Parallel
SYNOPSIS
Parallel is a short film that explores how we use language – verbal and non-verbal – to define ourselves and strive for a sense of belonging with those around us. The film follows a family as they partake in a weekly ritual of going to their local Chinese restaurant for dim sum. With a focus on the relationship between a young, British Chinese woman and her Chinese po po (grandmother), the film observes the struggles and feelings of uncertainty that can arise from feeling distanced from one’s origins but highlights the way moments of humour can also arise from such misalignments. By drawing us into the subtle physical movements and gestures that are shared and exchanged throughout the event, the film illustrates how we express our real emotions through the choreography of everyday life and portrays the experience of those inhabiting that ambiguous position of belonging to multiple cultures, countries, heritages—while perhaps not feeling fully aligned to any—all at once.
BIOGRAPHY
Rosanna is an artist, filmmaker, and researcher. Rosanna’s artwork has been exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; PADA Lisbon, David Roberts Art Foundation, London; Tramway, Glasgow; Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne. Her moving-image work has been longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Award. Rosanna’s first short film "Parallel" was screened at: Focal Point Gallery, Southend; REDEYE screening as part of South Parade at Feria, Marseille; Edinburgh International Film Festival; London Short Film Festival; San Diego Asian Film Festival; CHAI film festival Leipzig; the “Introducing” programme at ICO’s Screening Days; The British Library’s “Chinese and British” exhibition. Rosanna was a finalist in the Netflix Documentary Talent Fund programme and has completed a short documentary following a Chinese Lion Dance performer in London and Hong Kong. Rosanna continues to make sculptural work and is currently a participant in Conditions, an alternative art programme based in Croydon. She is currently working as a researcher and producer on a project exploring Hakka heritage for the V&A and Design Trust in Hong Kong.
ATTENDING IN PERSON?
Registration is not required for in-person event attendance at Woodland Pattern. However, it is still helpful and appreciated!
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